I nominate the lowly buckler as the most useless weapon in the game. It doesn't parry worth a darn, and delivers no damage when used offensively. I can't recall ever seeing a buckler deliver a perm.

Second most useless would be the great axe, which was apparently nerfed before I started playing the game. Now, this weapon, I have seen deliver perms, but it is so SLOW as to be useless. Such heavy weapon wielding gladiators tend to die early or, as in the case of the buckler, tend to have rather crummy records.

I have warriors using both the buckler and great axe (not at the same time). I found that the Great axe is still deadly. My warrior, Animal Crackers, Killed a warrior two rounds ago with it. It does deliver perms. It does require a high strength to use properly though. 22+ strength I found seems to be its requirement for good results. Anything less is just garbage.

As for the Buckler, I have never achieved anything other than a average damage result with it. As for parrying with it, I have seen warriors parry with it often. However, those same successful buckler users are masters in parry and have trains in buckler as well. It is not an easy weapon to be successful with.

I agree. I also found that there is a great difference between a 25 and a 24. This could be just happenstance, but my warriors with a 24 never do quite as well as those with a 25. This goes for all stats. A one point difference seems to make a big difference be it dex, con, int, or str. The only thing I can't verify is size. I have never had a working 25 size warrior. A 24 yes, but 25 no.